Even after months of stories chronicling allegations of sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein, there’s still more to be told. A new Channel 4 documentary, which premiered Tuesday in the U.K., has revealed a few more alleged instances of brutal behavior by the once-powerful producer — as well as the deal that theoretically could have led to real change years ago when he was still in charge at Miramax, had its terms been followed.

“Working With Weinstein” is themed around the fact that Weinstein’s career was built in England, making British films while also tormenting his British colleagues. The focus is primarily on producer Zelda Perkins, who for years was unable to tell her stories — but has been given a voice by the documentary. (Weinstein only appears in B-roll and photographs, but the final segment includes a statement denying the documentary’s allegations.)

“Working With Weinstein” contains many stories, told directly to the camera by the people who experienced them, of abuse and bad behavior committed by Weinstein. One consistent detail, beginning with the 1989 film “Scandal” to 2011’s “My Week With Marilyn,” is how he would always be on set the day nude scenes were being shot.

But perhaps the doc’s most interesting fact centers on the nondisclosure agreement Perkins and a colleague signed in 1998. Weinstein, as has been previously reported, attempted to rape the unnamed colleague and told Perkins about it — and both she and Perkins left the company soon afterward.

In the documentary, Perkins said they only pursued a deal because she was told that criminal proceedings weren’t a possibility. “My lawyers made it very clear that the only way that we were going to get Miramax to the table was to ask for financial damages compensation,” she said.

Perkins then went to Miramax with a specific list of requirements that would come with the financial settlement (250,000 pounds, split between the two of them). Among them: Weinstein agreeing to start therapy, the establishment of an HR department to protect employees, and (per a screenshot of Perkins’ original notes) an “indoctrination procedure for present and future employees” regarding how to report inappropriate behavior.

In addition, Perkins says that “a very key point, which they agreed to, was that if Harvey attempted to settle with anybody else in the next couple of years, Miramax had to disclaim our agreement to Disney or fire Harvey from the company.”

According to Perkins, the point wasn’t to receive compensation, but to keep Weinstein from doing what he had done ever again. “I didn’t want to take money, but as this was the option that was on the table. To me, it was very important that that money was in exchange for a set of obligations for Harvey that would control him… He would be restricted and tied up and his behavior stopped.”

Unfortunately, it appears that Miramax never followed through on those guidelines — which could have legitimately improved working conditions. In fact, “Working With Weinstein” points out that in the aftermath of Perkins’ exit, confidentiality agreements became a regular part of Miramax life.

“The main objective of my agreement with Miramax was to set up structures within the company to stop Harvey’s behavior,” Perkins said. “What happened was the opposite. The company rolled out confidentiality agreements for its employees, effectively allowing Harvey to behave with impunity.”

Almost 20 years later, the floodgates have broken and even those silenced by non-disclosure agreements are speaking out. But many people have suffered in the meantime.

“I had thought what had happened to my colleague and the agreement we’d signed was an isolated case,” Perkins said in the documentary. “Now it’s clear this means of silencing people was not just used by Weinstein, but other people of power… If we’d been in a position where we could have been in a position to speak to anyone in the authorities, this whole thing could have been stopped.”

As Arkasha Stevenson can now tell you, directing TV horror has its filmmaking perks. The director of all six episodes of “Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block” knows of at least one thing that really helped make this process work.

“I am in love with technocranes now. I want one. I want to ride it to the grocery store every day. I love them,” Stevenson said in a recent IndieWire interview. “Working on smaller projects, you have so many ideas in your head that you just can’t execute, because you don’t have the crew or you don’t have the tools and you don’t have the resources.”

Bringing “Butcher’s Block” to life brought the usual difficult “Channel Zero” balancing act of juggling a grounded horror story with some of the most terrifying visions anywhere on TV. Luckily for Stevenson, her first stint as a TV director came with the tools to make some of those ambitious ideas happen.

“We were talking about some shot in front of our producer and he was like, ‘OK, well we can get your technocrane for that day.’ And I just started giggling like an idiot and it was really embarrassing and I don’t know if anybody took me seriously for the rest of the day. But it was like being a kid in a candy store. You get really giddy wanting to go to set every day and try a new shot that you’ve dreamed up in your head. And that’s part of the fun that kind of keeps you going.”

Despite Stevenson having never tackled something on this scale before, “Channel Zero” showrunner Nick Antosca saw her 2017 Sundance pilot “Pineapple” and knew she’d be the right person for the “Butcher’s Block” job.

“There’s a scene where there’s a pig’s head and the aesthetic of meat, the way she shot it was like, ‘Oh, this director gets it.’ Arkasha has a very, very deft hand with practical effects and stuff like that,” Antosca said.

Stevenson joked that she nearly choked on her chicken sandwich when Antosca told her over a lunch meeting that the “Butcher’s Block” shoot would last 45 days and involve a crew of around a hundred people. But despite the length of the filming schedule and the number of people on the official payroll, shooting “Pineapple” in a small California town prepared her in ways she didn’t quite expect.

“‘Pineapple’ was very chaotic because it was very low budget, it was guerrilla,” Stevenson said. “We shot in this town called Coulterville and there’s like maybe 100 or 200 people in the town. Everybody had a role in the making of ‘Pineapple.’ It was this really nice community experience. So I think that process really helped me with the transition into ‘Butcher’s Block’ a lot more than I realized at the time.”

Transitioning to “Channel Zero” meant finding a delicate balance between bringing her own style and sensibilities and not feeling too detached from Craig William Macneill and Steven Piet’s work on “Candle Cove” and “No-End House.”

“I was nervous about that. I didn’t want the season to stick out too much, like an ugly duckling or anything,” Stevenson said. “‘Channel Zero’ has this very meditative pace, with this dark, simmering surrealist imagery, and that is something that I really am drawn to. So it just felt very comfortable fitting in with the other two directors. It was also such a learning curve for me that I was very much just like trying to keep up. That’s not a very flattering thing to say, but it’s true. I was learning on the fly a lot, so it all felt very natural to me because it had to be. And Nick really encourages that too. If you have an instinct that kind of goes against how you’d normally approach something, he’s totally for it and he supports you in that. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn’t. But either way, it felt like a laboratory most of the time, whatever time would allow.”

Navigating her way through the story of “Butcher’s Block,” which finds two sisters addressing and indulging the latent parts of their past, was a natural fit for Stevenson. With her previous film work and her pre-director career, the push and pull of this world’s unsettling allegories was right in line with ideas she’s been thinking about long before “Channel Zero” became a possibility.

“My ideal arena is mixing social realism with surrealism. I think that’s very much what this season does and it calls into question what kind of reality we are living in. It’s true that we live in our own reality and there are lots of different worlds around us that we’re kind of oblivious to just because we don’t see them,” Stevenson said. “I came out of school as a photojournalist and was originally going to be a photojournalist, for the rest of my life. And, and that’s kind of something that you’re taught very early on is that there are tons of things going on around you that you’re not seeing because you’re not trained to see them. And I think Nick and the writers really tapped into that and this really funky, bizarre way. There are worlds on top of worlds functioning all at the same time.”

Occasionally that metaphorical idea of stacked existences made its way into reality. One memorable sequence from the season’s second episode finds the spectral Robert Peach locked inside a holding cell. When the night guard turns the corner, he finds Robert vigorously devouring on what’s left of his cellmate. It’s a jarring, brutal reveal, but one that took a lot of work to realize.

“When Robert eats the lung in the jail cell, I had that shot idea to come in at a low angle in an extreme wide, and it wasn’t going to be possible in the actual set that we built. So I was just talking to the production designer and said, ‘OK, well, in order to do this, a dream-case scenario would be that we would build a second set that was just this cell. We’d raise it up off the ground like four feet and we’d stick a stunt guy in there and an actor on this side and like meld their bodies together on top, if that makes any sense.’ He came back the next day and had drawn up that second set and he was like, ‘We have the go-ahead to build this second set if you want to do that shot.'”

Like the newfound technocrane freedom, that liberty to have those visual dreams become reality represented a significant, emotional jump. Aside from being a particularly pivotal story from the set, the final product made for one of the season’s most chilling on-screen moments.

“It blew my mind to the point where I got a little teary-eyed that was possible. It’s my favorite shot in the whole season and I dreamed about it, but it’s still just one shot, you know, and we built an entire new set for it and it was specifically designed for that very specific lens, very specific camera movement,” Stevenson said. “We hired a stunt guy who laid underneath the plank of the floor. Half of his body is above ground, the other half of him is below ground. Somebody saying yes to that that made me want to cry. It was incredible.”

For a season filled with harrowing images of violence, another thing Stevenson wanted to keep at the front of her mind was how to make something unsettling while still being respectful to the real-life experiences that people face.

“There’s a lot of violence in this season and different categories of violence. A lot of it is emotional and emotionally driven and a lot of it is supposed to be more in line with what you’d expect from the tropes of the horror genre,” Stevenson said. “It was important to really make sure we knew which one was more rooted in the emotional, psychological element of the story and which ones weren’t and to also treat those with respect and honor those moments. There’s a lot of family violence that’s acted out. A lot of parents attacking their children, which to me doesn’t need a lot of gratuitous violence or a lot of gratuitous imagery. Just the idea of a mother rushing at her daughter with a knife is scary enough. So we had a lot of conversations about how we wanted to portray that.”

Sometimes those conversations centered on how close to keep those sequences in the frame, but other times it came down to how long to stay on a certain image before cutting away.

“A lot of the times what happens with me is I’ll have this idea of what something will look like or feel like, and then when the actual physical image is in front of you and somebody’s stabbing themselves in the stomach and crying, it’s like, ‘Oh God, I thought I could go like for x-number of seconds. But really I can just go for one. This is too much.’ So it was a lot of learning on the day about what you personally found gruesome. There is this very thin line and we’re trying not to cross it and be disrespectful,” Stevenson said.

As much as this season presents a clear vision over the course of its six episodes, Stevenson isn’t ready to take all the credit. For her, the process comes down to a constant sense of cooperation.

“When I was first told about ‘Channel Zero,’ my mind exploded a little bit. I just thought that there was no possible way I’d be able to get through an experience like that. But then you really get to see how it’s because you have all these people supporting you. It just really reinforced the desire to collaborate more,” Stevenson said. “It sounds very Mr. Rogers corny, but I went in to this project having very little television experience, not being on set for more than a week, not knowing how to use a lot of the tools available to me and the reason I survived all of that was because of the crew and the support system that was made available to me.”

At the Television Critics Association Winter press tour, the pair told IndieWire that before “American Crime Story” executive producer Ryan Murphy invited Ramirez to star as the titular designer, the two were already acquainted. In fact, the day that Ramirez got the role officially, he and Martin had plans to do a gallery tour together in Los Angeles. “I entered the first gallery and said ‘Ricky, I’m sorry I’m late, I was just finalizing this call, I’m doing Gianni Versace.’ He was the first person I told,” he said.

“I was very happy for him,” Martin added. “Weeks later, Ryan called me and he tells me ‘I want to talk to you,’ he said. ‘Let’s have dinner.’ So I hang up the phone and I call Edgar, ‘Guess who I’m having dinner with tonight?'”

Martin wasn’t actively looking for a part like that of Versace’s longtime lover — or any part, really. “I was completely caught by surprise,” he said. “I had no idea. I was just moving to LA, of course always in my mind I was like, ‘If I’m going to do some acting, I would love to be surrounded by the right cast and great directors and great producers’ — and I gotta be careful with what I wish for, because everything happened. Yes, I’ve had the opportunity to do television series in the past in America and theater. But this is very significant and very important.”

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” tracks (backward) the events leading up to the murder of the famous designer by the unbalanced Andrew Cunanan (played by Darren Criss). The reverse approach reflects a unique elegance and growing horror that’s quite different from the previous installment of “American Crime Story,” the Emmy-winning “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” reflecting the change in writers. While “The People v. O.J. Simpson” was overseen by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, “Versace’s” scripts were driven by British writer Tom Rob Smith, whose 2015 BBC miniseries “London Spy” was a critical favorite.

Ramirez noted that Smith’s approach to “Versace,” ultimately, “really resonates with the Greek tragedies. So it really feels like you’re reading and watching a big Greek tragedy.”

Beginning the film with the death scene was an intense choice for Ramirez and Martin — especially given that they shot it right where it happened, on the front steps of Gianni Versace’s Miami home.

“My favorite days were shooting in the villa in Miami — there were very significant scenes of course, when I find his body and when the FBI is drilling Antonio to take information from him,” Martin said. “It was very powerful, very intense, draining. And I would go back to a hotel every night…Coming back to L.A. and being able to get in your car and go to the set was easier.”

“It was easier,” Ramirez agreed, “but it was great that we were lucky enough to start off in Miami so we could bring all their energy and all that mood with us to Los Angeles. It was great for everyone, not only the cast but everyone, to experience that and feel the colors and textures of the house, because that house represents everything that Gianni wanted in his life. That house was somehow the apotheosis of what he wanted his legacy to be. It’s a physical manifestation of what he had in his brain.”

The full scope of Versace’s brain is something that, having reached the midpoint of the season, we’ve now come to understand far better than before. After five episodes, we’ve witnessed not just Versace’s death, but more and more of his life. For viewers who weren’t familiar with Versace, it’s a fascinating exposure to his personal journey. Meanwhile, for those who did know the name, it’s a fascinating challenge to their understanding of who he was as a persona.

In Ramirez’s words, “The thing is, life and work for Gianni was the same. In terms of the relationship Gianni and Antonio had, they were love partners but they were also work partners…They were workaholics.”

This goes against the perceptions many associate with the House of Versace. “What comes to your mind first, also part of the legend and also part of the misrepresentation, is the parties and the sexuality and the alleged orgies and all these things that are part of the legend, and not the work,” Ramirez said. “[He was] a guy that would actually go to bed rather early and wake up very early as well, because he was more of a craftsman than this big celebrity that lived this larger-than-life existence.”

And that aspect, plus the way in which “Versace” delves into showcasing his abilities as a designer, only heightens the tragedy of the story — a great talent whose life was ended, in part, due to the fact the authorities didn’t take the manhunt for Andrew Cunanan seriously.

Said Martin, “One of the reasons I definitely said yes is because behind the story, there’s so much injustice in so many aspects. for example the fact that it’s not how he was killed, it’s why he was killed and why did we allow it happen. This guy was not hiding, he went on a killing spree, he was living in Miami Beach. He was on the list of the most wanted by the FBI, but he wasn’t caught. So they were looking the other way. They were looking the other way because it was a gay man killing gay people.”

“It didn’t represent a public threat at the time,” Ramirez said.

“So what I’m saying about this is,” Martin continued, “it’s important to bring some light to anything my community is going through.”

“I think [homophobia] is the underlying theme of the whole series, of the whole show,” Ramirez said. “Homophobia and how this death could’ve been prevented…I think that Ryan and his team, we’re so lucky to be part of them now. They’ve been so clever and keen to identify stories that are both dramatically gripping and at the same time they speak about the zeitgeist. They speak about greater subjects of humanity that are going on in society.”

]]>http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/ricky-martin-edgar-ramirez-american-crime-story-versace-interview-1201931278/feed/01201931278Which The National Song Should Be the Title for Lead Singer Matt Berninger’s New TV Show?http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/the-national-matt-berninger-tv-show-song-title-1201931263/
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/the-national-matt-berninger-tv-show-song-title-1201931263/#respondWed, 21 Feb 2018 20:00:58 +0000Steve Greenehttp://www.indiewire.com/?p=1201931263

The National lead singer Matt Berninger is currently developing a TV show based on his own life, according to Pitchfork. Following the “Crashing”/”Better Things”/”I’m Sorry” mold, Berninger would play a version of himself, as would his brother Tom. Working alongside Trent O’Donnell (creator of “No Activity” and the original Australian series that formed the basis for “Review”), the creative team for this new Berninger show would also include Matt’s wife Carin Besser.

What this show doesn’t have yet is a title. Since there’s a .001% chance it doesn’t take the name from one of The National’s songs, we thought we’d offer up our ideas for the series’ best prospective titles. Some of the band’s top songs don’t lend themselves well to a TV show. (“Empire Line” is objectively the greatest song of 2017, but it’s hard to see that being a title that would move the needle for audiences who didn’t already know what it was.) But even if they don’t exactly capture the tone of what this show ends up being, there are plenty with the potential to grab some eyeballs.

3. “Fireproof” (Man, they really have taken so many of the good ones.)

2. “Mr. November”

1. “Fake Empire”

Granted, “Fake Empire” has also been taken — but by producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (“The O.C.,” “Runaways”) as the name of their production company. (Schwartz and Savage aren’t involved with this show, so that might create confusion if chosen. The duo named their shingle after the song in 2010.)

Still, if it’s not one of those last two, we’ll be legitimately surprised. No matter what, we’ll be watching.

Television can offer magnificent surprises early, often, and anywhere in between. From series and pilots built around an unpredictable twist to moment-by-moment developments that’ll knock you for a loop, time is on TV’s side — and yours. Great thrillers, mysteries, and other dramatic fair can deliver shocking moments on the regular, while more and more comedies are also getting in on the risk/reward ratio benefitting those who know how to play the odds.

If fortune favors the bold, then consider what’s below a list of the boldest television auteurs (or at least their boldest gambles). Limiting it to 25 slots, IndieWire has culled the most shocking moments and best twists of the 21st century (so far). Each selection is indisputably memorable, meaningful, and — hopefully — not too morbid. Death can often be a surprise, so some of the selections below steer away from the sudden departures and look at other scenes with equal impact.

If any twist or shocking moment is missing, let us know in the comments section, but before you scan the list know this: The below descriptions contain spoilers. While everything in bold and in photographs is safe to see, only those who want the truth need read further, or risk having some of television’s most unexpected delights ruined for you.

25. “Mr. Robot” – “Where do you think you are right now?”

It would’ve been a bigger twist if Season 1 of “Mr. Robot” hadn’t ended with a Tyler Durden moment. While the show didn’t necessarily need to ask the same kind of season-long question in its follow-up, the answer of who was knocking at the door to Elliot’s apartment got revealed in spectacular fashion halfway into Season 2. Yes, many fans had anticipated the reveal that Elliott was actually in prison. But the way the show melted away Elliot’s facade was still an impressive way of reframing everything that had come in the seven hours prior. At the very least, it’s notable for being a twist that arrives with a direct apology to the audience: Elliot saying, “I’m sorry for not telling you everything. But I needed this in order to get better. Please don’t be mad too long,” is a bit of self-awareness that ultimately made the later Leon developments. Imagine a world gone insane, indeed.

24. “Orphan Black” – They Be Clones

Season 1, Episode 3, “Variation Under Nature”

“Orphan Black” was a series that, for five seasons and 50 episodes, thrived on twists. Enemies became partners, every character had a secret, and even the shadowy organizations behind the show’s central conspiracies would shift. Among the show’s shocks were the death of Dr. Leekie at the unlikely hands of bumbling suburban dad Donnie; the reveal that Delphine, Donnie, Paul and others were actually monitors; and the fact that Mrs. S knew about everything from the start. But perhaps the show’s biggest twist came early on, in Episode 3, when Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) — and the viewers — were let in on the show’s central premise: That the “Orphan Black” lookalikes, all played by Maslany, were clones, and part of a massive experiment. From there, the mystery of how Sarah witnessed someone who looked just like herself commit suicide was revealed, but the “why” wouldn’t come for another several seasons, as part of yet another twist.

23. “True Detective” – The Light’s Winning

Season 1, Episode 8, “Form and Void”

“True Detective” began and remains a very bleak show. In its first (stellar) season, Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) were assigned a homicide case involving a 28-year-old prostitute who was discovered with a crown of deer antlers on her head and twig sculptures resembling bird traps around her body. The case itself was dark enough, but the pair of cops investigating it wasn’t much brighter. Though Marty cracked a lot of jokes, he was also a heavy drinking adulterer with an affinity for strip clubs and strong words. Rust, meanwhile, wasn’t invited to many parties, on account of his cold regard for the living and an eerie acceptance of death.

So that these two made it out of the eight-episode, decades-spanning investigation alive, well, that’s something of a small miracle. Nic Pizzolatto and Cary Joji Fukunaga somehow crafted a story steeped in melancholy and loss, yet found an extremely satisfying way to wrap things up without losing either of the leads. Just as Cohle stared up into an inexplicable spiraling vortex near the finale’s climax, so too did audiences stare in wonderment at a twist ending that doubled as a relief: If you look at the dark sky just right, you can see that the light’s winning.

22. “Doctor Who” – River Song’s Identity Revealed

Season 6, Episode 7, “A Good Man Goes to War”

River Song (Alex Kingston) had been introduced during the David Tennant era of “Doctor Who” as a fellow time traveler who’s out of sync with the Doctor: their first meeting is actually the last time she’s met him. The badass companion and eventual wife of the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) always had an air of mystery about her since her origins were largely unknown, and in true timey-wimey fashion, her ancestry was far from predictable.

Although she is chronologically older than married companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), it’s revealed that she is in fact their daughter, conceived in the TARDIS while it was in the time vortex, and thus she carries Time Lord DNA. In a fun linguistic twist, her name River Song is a recursive translation of Melody Pond in the language of the Gamma Forests, which doesn’t have ponds, only rivers. This parenting revelation not only gave River a fantastic backstory, but it also changed the dynamics between the Ponds and River, and even the Doctor, who basically became their son-in-law.

21. “The Walking Dead” – Carl’s Last Stand

Season 8, Episode 8, “How It’s Gotta Be”

Death is a fact of life in “The Walking Dead,” and yet there have been plenty of shockers over the years. Sasha, Beth, Hershel, Lori, Andrea, Abraham, and so many others, went out in sometimes unexpected and surprising fashion — especially when those deaths greatly deviated from the “Walking Dead” comics, like the early exit of Andrea. And then there was the case of poor Glenn Rhee, who appears to die in Season 6, but survives — only to succumb in the most brutal fashion imaginable at the start of Season 7.

But perhaps the most surprising moment is a recent one: the finale of Season 8, in which it’s revealed that Rick’s son Carl has been bitten in the abdomen by a walker. Carl isn’t yet dead, but a bite like that is fatal. Carl (Chandler Riggs) was believed to be one of the few characters on the show who was likely safe from harm (he already lost an eye, after all) — especially since he was seen in the season opener’s flash forward, and is still alive in the comic. Riggs, himself, appears to be shocked and disappointed by the decision. But after eight seasons, it’s a credit to “The Walking Dead” that the show can still find new ways to surprise.

20. “Homeland” – Brody Survives Long Enough to Be Arrested

Death can be a pretty harrowing twist, taking a character right out of a show at an unexpected moment. At the height of its popularity, it may not have been the biggest surprise that “Homeland” would want to keep an Emmy-winning co-star on board. But that bomb vest reveal, paired with the idea that Brody would have a change of heart and not go through with his undercover mission made for a shocking end to a fascinating, roller-coaster season. Keeping Brody alive set the table for another mammoth shift for the show, when a heat-of-the-moment decision finds Carrie telling him she knows he’s a spy. In true espionage fashion, it wasn’t the things that the characters said but their physical reactions to them that made them indelible. The eyes of those two, not to mention Saul and Quinn, tell it all.

19. “Hannibal” – Guess Who’s On the Plane?

Season 2, Episode 13, “Mizumono”

Not one but two shocking “Hannibal” season finales featured Gillian Anderson in the final moments, but we’re picking Bedelia du Maurier’s surprise reappearance at the end of Season 2, in the episode “Mizumono,” because of how it twisted everything we were expecting from Season 3. Before, we were anticipating that Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) would be on the run following his bold escape from the blood-soaked action of the final act, but now the game was changed. Now, he was traveling in style, and he’d even seemed to “get the girl.” It raised real questions about what we might expect from the always fascinating drama, and set the standard for what to expect going forward.

18. “The West Wing” – The Nightmare Scenario

Season 4, Episode 22, “Commencement”

What’s fascinating about what happens at the end of Season 4 is that years earlier, creator Aaron Sorkin had planted it as a narrative possibility. Zoey (Elisabeth Moss), the youngest daughter of President Bartlet (Martin Sheen), had always had a bit of a rebellious streak, and in a memorable monologue from Episode 6 of Season 1, the President told her just what kind of danger that would mean, if someone were to ever kidnap her for political purposes, because “this country no longer has a Commander-in-Chief, it has a father who’s out of his mind because his little girl is in a shack somewhere in Uganda with a gun to her head.”

Sure enough, someone ultimately did in the second-to-last Sorkin-penned episode of the series, “Commencement,” which led to the ultimately shocking choice in the season finale, “Twenty-Five,” to witness Bartlet surrender his post as, y’know, the President of the United States, to Speaker of the House Glen Allen Walken (John Goodman). Zoey’s fate, as well as the nation’s, was left to Season 5 (and a different showrunner, as Sorkin had just left the show) to discover.

17. “Fringe” – The Twin Towers

Season 1, Episode 20, “There’s More Than One of Everything”

Some twists can ruin shows. Some define them. And for “Fringe,” no twist better explained what was going on with the Fox sci-fi drama than the Season 1 finale, when Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) gets whisked to a parallel world… and as she encounters the mysterious figure who’s the reason she came, the camera pulls out to reveal that she’s inside an office within the original World Trade Center — which is, in the year 2009, still standing. This moment, it’s been argued, is exploitative and/or insensitive to the fact that 9/11 remains a semi-visceral wound for America, especially those living in New York City at that time. But there’s no denying it was a game-changing, visual, and visceral moment for the series.

]]>http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/best-twists-most-shocking-tv-spoilers-1201930855/feed/01201930855‘Flint Town’: New Netflix Documentary Series Follows the Police Force of an American City in Turmoilhttp://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/flint-town-netflix-documentary-police-1201931214/
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/flint-town-netflix-documentary-police-1201931214/#respondWed, 21 Feb 2018 18:28:20 +0000Steve Greenehttp://www.indiewire.com/?p=1201931214

Flint, Michigan is still living through one of the most high-profile crises in modern American life, with a series of mismanaged decisions about the city’s resources leading to over a dozen deaths and upheaval at many institutional city levels. One of those groups is Flint’s police department, which as the trailer for the new Netflix series “Flint Town” describes, is made up of 98 individuals meant to serve a city with a population of 100,000.

The eight-part docuseries, coming next month to Netflix, tracks the day-to-day operations, training, and community relationships of the city’s police force. By looking at the fraught relationship between Flint’s citizens and law enforcement, the series will look to the city as a test case for how America sees and regards modern policing as an institution. This first trailer shows on-camera interviews from police officers and parents, as well as candid moments in ride-alongs.

“Flint Town” comes from directors Zackary Canepari, Drea Cooper and Jessica Dimmock. Canepari and Cooper were the filmmakers behind the 2015 Olympic hopeful doc “T-Rex” — in late 2016, Barry Jenkins signed on to write a script based on the story of subject Clarissa Shields.

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Tuesday or Wednesday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best show currently on TV?” can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: What is the best bottle episode? (Current and past shows are fair game.)

Daniel Fienberg (@TheFienPrint), The Hollywood Reporter

Last season’s Harriet Tubman-centric “Underground” episode “Minty” was a wonderful and unique bottle episode, not just a single location but effectively just a single character doing a monologue. I guess “American Bitch” from “Girls” probably counts and that was a good one (though “Girls” probably had another bottle episode or two that were at least equally strong). I’m partial to some fairly obvious sitcom bottle episode classics, including the “Friends” episode, “The One Where No One’s Ready,” and a couple “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” bottle episodes, probably with “Chardee MacDennis” as the pinnacle. “Black-ish” had a great one with “Hope” two seasons ago, and that episode was basically just the entire Johnson family on the couch watching TV for a half-hour. “One Day at a Time” has had a few, though really it’s not exactly fair to keep listing comedies, which usually have the advantage of fewer sets in the first place and always have the advantage of needing to only fill a half-hour, which isn’t nearly as hard, which isn’t to take anything away from something like “The Conversation” from “Mad About You.” I might want to mention great NEAR bottle episodes like “The Suitcase” from “Mad Men” or “Fight,” the last good episode of “Masters of Sex.”

To me, though, it ultimately comes down to two clear options: Either “Three Men and Adena” from “Homicide” or “Fly” from “Breaking Bad” and since I can almost guarantee that Sepinwall will focus on “Three Men and Adena,” I’m going with “Fly,” masterfully directed by Rian Johnson. The episode, which builds unimaginable suspense from the presence of a single tiny insect, sets up in micro the escalating tensions and mania that the series would play out in macro over the rest of its run. “Breaking Bad” was always a show of big events that hinged on the tiniest of incidents and they didn’t get much tinier than this.

Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall), Uproxx

I suspect that contractually I’m obligated to pick “Fly” from “Breaking Bad,” which is a great (if divisive) example of what an episode can be even inside a small space with only a few characters. Instead, I’d like to go back to the early ’90s to a pair of bottle episode classics, one comedy, one drama. Seinfeld’s “The Chinese Restaurant” is the more famous one, and the more historically important one, as a half-hour of Jerry, Elaine, and George waiting for a dinner table became the key that unlocked the entire series for Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and helped it transform from a funny but uneven young comedy into one of the best ever made.

But the best bottle episode ever made is “Three Men and Adena” from “Homicide: Life on the Street.” The conclusion to the first season’s arc about the murder of little girl Adena Watson, virtually the whole episode is just detectives Tim Bayliss and Frank Pembleton in an interrogation room with their chief suspect Risley Tucker, aka the Araber, in a last-ditch attempt to get him to confess before they’re forced to abandon the case. It’s a spellbinding blend of dialogue (the only “Homicide” episode to win a writing Emmy), acting, and directing, made all the more intense because it feels like we’re stuck in that room with the three men, desperate to find answers about what really happened to poor Adena.

Tim Surette (@timsurette), TV.com

I would have said “Community’s” “Cooperative Calligraphy” but someone else has probably blurbed that, and then I would have said “Breaking Bad’s” “Fly” but same same, so let’s just go with “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s” “The Gang Goes to Hell Pt. 2.” To summarize, the gang is in the brig of a sinking Christian cruise ship because they are a bunch of hedonists, and the room begins to fill with water to kill them all. It’s hilarious! Like any great bottle episode, it shows off what the show does best: has its characters talk to each other and lets the actors deliver great performances. Plus it features an homage to Stomp!, an imaginary dinner party, and Glenn Howerton’s excellent CCH Pounder impression and Kaitlin Olson’s truly awful Obama impersonation.

Damian Holbrook (@damianholbrook), TV Guide Magazine

I don’t know if this counts, but I loved the second “30 Rock” live episode, “Live from Studio 6H.” Essentially set up as a Season 6 bottle episode with Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) locking most of the TGS staff inside Tracy’s (Tracy Morgan) dressing room after Jack (Alec Baldwin) decides that the show would start pre-taping, the action only jumped outside of the room for faux commercials and “flashbacks” to classic live-TV moments that were as fictional as they were effed-up. Among the “Honeymooners”-ish double-fatality, the ultra-sexist Joey Montero variety show from the ’70s and on-air throwdown between the stars of the racially backwards “Alfie & Abner,” we also got guest appearances by Jon Hamm, Donald Glover, Amy Poehler, Jimmy Fallon and Fred Armisen, as well as the kind of flubbed lines and screwy camera-angles you can only get on actual live TV.

Liz Shannon Miller (@lizlet), IndieWire

I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately for the shows of 10 years past, so I’m going to pick perhaps, arguably, the last truly fun and watchable episode of “Battlestar Galactica” ever made — Season 3’s “Unfinished Business,” AKA “the episode where many characters work out a lot of interpersonal drama by beating each other up in a boxing ring,” A.K.A. “the episode where we flash back to seeing Adama and Roslin getting high back on New Caprica.” There are probably better episodes to mention, and I like knowing that other respondees will mention them. But “Battlestar” was so special in its time, and that’s worth remembering.

Kaitlin Thomas (@thekaitling), TVGuide.com

I am going to cheat and choose an episode that isn’t technically a bottle episode because of the amount of money it surely took to produce, but is nevertheless one of the best examples of the format: Banshee’s “Tribal.” The turning point of the show’s third season, the episode featured an intense hour-long siege that confined most of the show’s main characters to a single location; this is how the episode gets away with being labeled a bottle episode while still featuring a ton of effects and stunts and employing a number of extras. But although the relentless, violent shootout between Hood’s (Antony Starr) small group and Chayton’s (Geno Segers) armed men that takes up most of the hour is impressive on its own, what really makes the episode stand out are the tense conflicts playing out in the quiet confessions and arguments that occur in between hails of bullets. It may not be as popular a choice as Doctor Who’s “Midnight” or Mad Men’s “The Suitcase,” but “Tribal” is an action-packed episode that punches viewers in the gut by never letting up on the emotional or character fronts — something the Cinemax show came to be known for over the course of its four-season run. I don’t care if it’s not technically a bottle episode, it features several of the same characteristics, and the result is one of the best hours of TV I’ve ever seen.

Todd VanDerWerff (@tvoti), Vox

“Homicide’s” “Three Men and Adena” traps three men in the same tiny room for the vast majority of its running time, and when it leaves that room, it’s really just to go across the hall. But for the most part, this is just two cops trying to get a suspect to crack in a long, long, long interrogation, one that culminates in some of the most devastating TV ever filmed. Andre Braugher’s Det. Frank Pembleton was already proving to be one of TV’s most mesmerizing characters in the show’s first four episodes, but in this one, he soared up over the top. That’s right. This hour was just the fifth episode of the show ever made. Take that, every other show on television!

April Neale (@aprilmac), Monsters & Critics

How about the entire season of HBO’s amazing “Room 104” which got little love at award nom time, but was one of my favorite new series offerings of last year?

For sheer production economy, using one room as the set and keeping the action inside and tightly focused on two people, these brilliant bottle episodes are Yahtzee and the gold standard for filmmakers daring to test the edges of their writing talent and choice of directors.

I am not surprised my favorite episodes of this series were directed by women, as I think we women have a greater appreciation for what we hear versus the more masculine tack of what one sees…going for the big effects or explosive action scenes – not that one is better than the other, just the stylistic differences, in my opinion, lent themselves a better creative playground for these excellent female directors to explore emotional nuances (“The Missionaries” especially) and push the psychological limits into the horror realm (“Ralphie”).

What a fantastic premise for a series! Smart, tight, and unlike anything else on TV. If I had to pick the best “bottle” episode of this bottle series for me, and this is tough, I would vote for “Ralphie” for the sheer shock value and chilling after effects it left the viewer.

Ben Travers (@BenTTravers), IndieWire

Between “Friends,” “Mad Men,” and “Breaking Bad,” the all-time greats have been covered. So I’ll throw a shout-out to a bottle episode that comes the closest to taking place in the same physical realm as a bottle and that none-but-the-devout have likely seen: “Vision Quest,” “Archer’s” sixth season masterpiece finds the entire ISIS team trapped in an elevator. Not only does it end on one of the most ludicrous reveals of an extremely ludicrous series, but the episode builds a fun narrative arc out of banter, necessity, and paranoia, as the team tries to reconcile their situation while taking as many pot shots at one another as possible. It’s a sharp piece of writing all-around, as great bottle episodes necessitate, with plenty of suspense and humor (doy), but it never lacks visual flair, either. Plus, even after that multi-level disgusting reveal, Mallory’s kicker sends “Archer” out on a high-note.

Q: What is the best show currently on TV?*

A: NONE

Other contenders: “The Alienist,” “Baskets,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “Homeland,” “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” the Olympics, “One Day at a Time,” “Queer Eye” (one vote each)

*In the case of streaming services that release full seasons at once, only include shows that have premiered in the last month.

Netflix has released the first teaser for its “Lost in Space” reboot, the classic science fiction series which popularized this line: “Danger, Will Robinson.” With Parker Posey as the gender-swapped villain Dr. Smith, Will Robinson is in for some seriously fabulous danger this go around the sun. The newly released trailer is vague on plot but long on style, with “House of Cards” star Molly Parker in the role of matriarch Maureen Robinson. Parker’s tranquil voiceover lends the trailer gravitas, as she leads her intrepid brood into the great unknown of an epic-looking spaceship.

“Human kind evolves. It’s how we survive,” she says. “Earth is our home. But only so long as it keeps us safe. When this world can no longer serve that purpose: Another planet, another colony, another chance. The rest of human history begins now.”

Originally created by Irwin Allen, producer of disaster film “The Poseidon Adventure,” “Lost in Space” ran for three seasons from 1965 through 1968. The show followed the Robinsons, a pioneering family of space colonizers who are stymied by the saboteur, Dr. Smith (Posey). Smith later became the series’ comic relief and a crucial part of the storyline.

Parker caught the attention of cinephiles recently for her role in “Madeline’s Madeline,” the new film from experimental filmmaker Josephine Decker that premiered at Sundance to rave reviews. She is accompanied by Toby Stephens, a celebrated theater actor best known for his role as Gustav Graves in “Die Another Day.”

]]>http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/lost-in-space-trailer-molly-parker-netflix-1201931007/feed/01201931007Netflix Has Almost Tripled Its Amount of Available Television Shows in Less Than a Decadehttp://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/netflix-available-television-shows-1201930989/
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/netflix-available-television-shows-1201930989/#respondWed, 21 Feb 2018 15:41:51 +0000Kate Erblandhttp://www.indiewire.com/?p=1201930989

You’re not imagining things, dear Netflix consumer, the streaming giant really does have more television offerings than ever before. The third-party Netflix search engine Flixable has crunched some numbers (via Business Insider) and found that, since 2010, Netflix has nearly tripled its television offerings, while its movie picks have gone down by the thousands (and, yes, that includes their splashy “Originals” titles and big festival buys).

Business Insider reports that “in 2010, Netflix had 530 TV shows compared to 6,755 movies. Now, in 2018, the amount of TV shows has nearly tripled to 1,569, and the amount of movies offered has decreased to 4,010.” As the outlet notes, chief content officer Ted Sarandos has been open about how the streaming outfit tailors its picks to what audiences want — which is, increasingly, more television shows, both original and from other networks. It’s not just “Stranger Things” or “Black Mirror” or newbie “Everything Sucks!” that’s fueling the charge, it’s also syndicated picks like “Friends” and “The Office.”

As Sarandos explained in 2016, Netflix has always found that the minority of its audience total viewing is dedicated to movies. At the UBS Global Media and Communications conference in New York, Sarandos was asked about the seeming decline in movie picks on the site, to which he said: “No matter what, we end up with about one-third of our watching being movies.”

Still, Netflix isn’t backing down from the film side of things, instead investing in their own kind of “event” films, including original titles like “Bright” and the recent surprise release “The Cloverfield Paradox.” They will release 80 original titles in 2018 alone, a pricey proposition that will inevitably slice into spending for other, non-original titles. The hope is that the film side of things will help fuel to the rest of outfit, even if it’s not the biggest winner on its own.

“Making arthouse films and Sundance movies on its own can never be a sustainable big business,” Sarandos told IndieWire last August. “But the economics of it are the same. We can draft off a bigger business, so people come in for something else and you have their attention and, ‘Oh, I want to see this new thing.’ You don’t know the star or the director, you just know the premise, and you have this algorithm that they are putting in front of you that you trust, so you try it.”

You can check out the Flixable report (with some very telling graphics) right here.

Despite his recent ousting from his Emmy-winning role on Amazon’s “Transparent” after an internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, actor Jeffrey Tambor may still have at least one small screen turn to look forward to: the return of “Arrested Development.” The beloved comedy’s fifth season wrapped in November, though there’s no word yet on a release date for the Netflix series or Tambor’s role in the long-gestating revival, which comes four years after the streaming giant first released the fourth season.

amNY reports that Tambor’s “Arrested” co-star David Cross — himself the subject of recent harassment claims — told the outlet that many members of the cast “stand behind” the actor and are hopeful he will return for the upcoming fifth season. “I can’t speak for everybody, but I know there are a number of us who stand behind him — from the limited amount we know, we stand behind Jeffrey — and I am one of them,” said Cross to the outlet.

“I think it’s very curious that Amazon didn’t make public the results of their internal investigation,” Cross told amNY. “I’m not sure why they would do that. I just know the whole thing is rather curious to me.”

Specifically asked if the accusations against Tambor will impact his work on “Arrested Development,” Cross said: “I certainly hope not. I doubt it, but I don’t know. I’m not in those offices or making those decisions.”

Let’s get this out of the way: “UnREAL” Season 3 still lacks the scintillating spark that made the show’s debut must-see TV, but it has also made marked, knowing improvements after a sophomore run that crashed and burned (so to speak). The first five episodes are so annoying uneven, it’s hard to settle on a declarative reaction. On the one hand, using a suitress (rather than a suitor) to wisely keep the focus on women pays off in better arcs for Quinn (Constance Zimmer) and Rachel (Shiri Appleby) — so yay, “UnREAL” is good again! But on the other, the suitress herself (played by the wonderful Caitlin Fitzgerald) is poorly utilized, and just when the show starts rolling, it inexplicably and maddeningly derails itself — so boo, “UnREAL” is still a mess.

At its peak, Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro’s behind-the-scenes satire of reality TV made you hate that you loved what you were watching, but that was the whole point. It took you so far inside the belly of the beast you couldn’t help but admire and engage with the final product: a “Bachelor”-esque show that, in this framing, helped expose culpability in its characters as well as viewers at home. The low-brow melodrama manufactured for the fake series and within the real one proved exciting, while breaking down its meta commentary on reality TV and women’s roles throughout media (among other issues) stimulated the mind long after the twists and turns played out.

Season 2 had a number of problems, but most of them related back to inefficiency and over-expediency. The hollow new characters, hackneyed romances, and half-assed plotlines largely stemmed from a lack of development. “UnREAL” simply didn’t take the time it needed to make each storytelling choice as meaningful as it could be; in the end, all those short-shrifts bit the meta Lifetime drama in the ass.

Season 3, to its credit, is more focused on the long game. In the first half of the season, the writers patiently advance two predominant issues: Can powerful (or intimidating) women have a rewarding romance without lowering themselves to the patriarchal ideas of how women should behave? Does Quinn, for example, stand a shot at long-term love if she maintains her reputation as a Queen B(ee) ball-buster? And then there’s the question plaguing Rachel: Can you be honest with yourself if you’re lying to everyone else? It’s not hard to imagine how such a query could prove pertinent in the realm of reality television, where manufactured emotion is the status quo, and the audience will often feel torn between trusting Rachel’s choices and worrying if she’s gone off the rails (again).

These are encouraging signs for the seasons, especially given how dedicated the show remains to its beloved couple, Quinn and Rachel. But socially and politically, it’s rather tame. Now is the time to tackle sexism in the workplace, the humanizing effects of reality television, or any number of big issues “UnREAL” is uniquely positioned to skewer, but even within its basic story, there are clumsy mistakes.

How Quinn reacts to the suitress’ quest for true love is largely logical, and then a decision at the end of the otherwise excellent second episode reeks of desperation — and not on Quinn’s part. It’s as if the show’s producers, much like Quinn does on “Everlasting,” got so fed up with the lack of soapy surprises they threw in the most confounding one they could think of. And Rachel’s yurt-living, goat-raising, meditating-in-a-lake lifestyle is easy to make fun of initially, but just when she’s winning us over to her truth-telling ways, the audience is asked to hear the voice of reason from a character who’s too despicable and untrustworthy to ever serve that purpose.

On a smaller scale, there are vexing moments that keep “UnREAL” from its desired prestige perch. At one point, a character is about to reveal a secret to a reporter, and she looks over her shoulder as though someone might hear her. (Don’t worry about the reporterreporting your secret to the freakin’ world.) Chet (Craig Bierko) is shamelessly chasing an Emmy in a meta storyline that feels shamelessly self-serving thus far. Jeremy (Josh Kelly) is back yet again, after assaulting Rachel in Season 2, and he’s looking hotter than ever (which is problematic unto itself). Worse yet, numerous main characters continue to be treated as a means to an end, as they make decisions motivated by melodramatic necessity rather than the rationality they’ve proven to possess.

It would be somewhat forgivable if Rachel, Quinn, Jay (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman), and the rest of the group were being turned into puppets with something to say, but “UnREAL” isn’t as sharp as it needs to be to earn such character digressions. Everything to do with “Everlasting” is dull; not even Caitlin Fitzgerald can liven things up. We’ve seen each phase of the reality show before, and none of the rose elimination ceremonies are dramatic because Fitzgerald’s Serena lacks interiority. She’s just a proxy for Quinn, which is a good idea without the necessary follow-through. (Serena can be like Quinn without being so ordinary.) After Episode 2, she’s basically in one of two modes: whining about what she has to do on the show, or all-too-giddy about one of the guys she just met (who will obviously soon disappoint her).

The men are equally one-dimensional, so one of the juiciest aspects of the show — the show within the show — is rendered rather lifeless by the midway point of Season 3. Quinn and Rachel’s arcs are stronger, and that second episode really shows what “UnREAL” is capable of with this promising “suitress” set-up, but it’s still a long way from its addictive and enlightening former self. Given its impeccable start, this is a series we’ll always be rooting for, and Season 3 could very well round the corner to a strong finish. After five episodes, you’ll still want more, no matter how much you trust what’s next.

But with a reality TV star in the White House, #MeToo and “Time’s Up” movements in full swing, and the knowledge of what this show used to be, the lack of urgency in Season 3 is annoying. The world is alight with the very issues Season 1 started tackling. “UnREAL” should be scorching the earth, whether it’s directly referencing topical issues or not. It should feel dangerous, as if a bomb could go off at any moment. But even with all these fires, it still can’t find a spark.

]]>http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/unreal-review-season-3-lifetime-show-1201930638/feed/01201930638‘How to Get Away With Murder’ Star Karla Souza Reveals She Was Raped by a Director on Mexico Film Shoothttp://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/karla-souza-raped-how-to-get-away-with-murder-mexico-director-1201930920/
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/karla-souza-raped-how-to-get-away-with-murder-mexico-director-1201930920/#respondWed, 21 Feb 2018 14:53:11 +0000Zack Sharfhttp://www.indiewire.com/?p=1201930920

Karla Souza, best known for her role as Laurel Castillo on ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder,” revealed to CNN en Español that she was raped earlier in her career by a director. The actress did not name the filmmaker, but she said the sexual assault occurred during a film shoot on location in Mexico. Souza and the director were staying at a hotel separate from the cast and crew during the production.

“He knocked at my door saying he wanted to go over some scenes and I thought it’s 2 a.m., it’s not appropriate and it’s something that shouldn’t be happening,” Souza said.

The actress refused to open the door despite the director’s insistent knocking. Souza said the director penalized her for the decision by “not shooting” her scene in the film and “humiliating” her in front of others on the set.

“This was the psychological control that he held over me,” she said about the director’s behavior. After a month of being the victim of the director’s “total abuse of power,” Souza felt she had no choice but to “give in” to his physical demands.

“I ended up giving in to him,” Souza said. “[I let him] kiss me, to touch me in ways I did not want him to touch me and in one of those instances, he attacked me violently and yes, he raped me.”

Souza was brought to tears during the CNN interview. The actress has been a lead cast member on “How to Get Away With Murder” for three seasons.

HBO released the first big look at the upcoming season that brings back just about everyone. Thomas Middleditch, Zach Woods, Martin Starr, and newly minted Oscar nominee Kumail Nanjiani all return as the remaining members of Pied Piper. Meanwhile, this trailer shows Matt Ross once again as enigmatic maybe-hero, maybe-villain Gavin Belson.

After a very complicated series of events over the last batch of episodes saw multiple changes in Pied Piper’s management, a failed heist at a tech conference, and one of the best TV episodes of the year. This time around, the focus is a little more simple: keep the company alive (again).

The bottom line is that these are still socially awkward tech geniuses trying not to completely screw up the biggest idea any of them will ever have. And they make fun of each other a whole bunch. Looks like not much has actually changed (and we’re pretty OK with that).

In this new clip released by FX Tuesday, viewers are warned to get ready for another mind-bending season of television, as promised by star Aubrey Plaza. We’re referring to the actor by name, because who’s to say who’s really speaking to us? Lenny? The Shadow King? Or some new and terrifying entity likely to spend Season 2 tormenting David Haller (Dan Stephens)? The one thing we know from experience — a therapy session led by her never seems to go well.

At the end of Season 1, we saw David, reunited with his love Sydney (Rachel Keller), whisked away by a mysterious pod, which was only the cherry on top of the sundae of surprises we experienced in the trippy FX drama created by Noah Hawley, based on the Marvel Comics.

What the ramifications are, and what we should expect when the show returns in just a few weeks, remain unclear — but then again, it might stay that way. After all, as Plaza reminds us, David and his friends aren’t real — though, she promises that “what’s coming is is very very real.”

The cast for Season 2 also includes Jean Smart, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder, Katie Aselton, Bill Irwin, Hamish Linklater, Jemaine Clement, and Navid Negahban. Consider us thrilled to find out more, in every sense of the word. “Legion” Season 2 premieres Tuesday, April 3 on FX.

]]>http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/legion-season-2-trailer-aubrey-plaza-watch-1201930781/feed/01201930781Alex Garland’s FX Television Series Revealed: ‘Devs’ is a ‘Technology Story’ Set in San Franciscohttp://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/alex-garlands-fx-television-series-devs-1201930749/
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/alex-garlands-fx-television-series-devs-1201930749/#commentsTue, 20 Feb 2018 20:53:23 +0000Zack Sharfhttp://www.indiewire.com/?p=1201930749

Alex Garland is Hollywood’s current visionary when it comes to science-fiction, and he’s getting ready to take his talents to the small screen for his first television project with FX. The “Annihilation” director made headlines earlier this month when he said his television show would be in the same vein of sci-fi as his beloved directorial debut “Ex Machina,” and now he has revealed more concrete information to Collider.

Garland’s FX series is titled “Devs,” which is a nod to software developers and teases what the general story is about. According to Garland, the show is set in San Francisco and is only being designed for one season, “self-contained” story, although certain story threads could lend themselves to a follow-up run of episodes.

“It’s about a particular aspect of technology at the moment which is to do with very, very big data and very powerful processing power, and what can happen when you put those two things together,” Garland teased of the plot. “It’s set in San Francisco, a sort of tech story.”

Garland says the plan is to begin shooting the project in six months, and he confirms he’s already starting the casting process and location scouting. Here’s what Garland had to say about the project earlier this month:

It’s a sort of science fiction, but it’s a much more technology based science fiction whereas ‘Annihilation’ is a more hallucinogenic form of sci fi and a more fantastical form of sci fi. This is slightly more in common with projects I’ve worked on like ‘Ex Machina‘ or ‘Never Let Me Go,’ which are taking something about our world now — not our world in the future, but our world as it is right now — and then drawing sort of inferences and conclusions from it.

Childhood fantasies will be alive and well this March, thanks to the original Amazon Prime series “Dangerous Book for Boys,” executive produced by Bryan Cranston and Michael Glouberman (“Malcolm in the Middle”).

The series follows Wyatt McKenna (Gabriel Bateman), a young child coping with the death of his father Patrick (Chris Diamantopoulos) when he finds a book written by his father that provides a treasure trove of advice on how to navigate childhood.

The book in the series is inspired by an actual book of the same name, written by Conn and Hal Iggulden. It offers advice to boys on topics ranging from building a tree house to learning the histories of famous battles.

Here is the official synopsis for the series:

“The series follows the McKenna family as they cope with the untimely passing of Patrick, their patriarch and a whimsical inventor who touched the lives of everyone who knew him. His death has left the family reeling, but hope appears in the form of a book called ‘The Dangerous Book for Boys’ that Patrick created as a handbook to help his three sons. The book is a how-to guide for childhood that inspires fantasies for his youngest son, Wyatt. While in his fantasy world, Wyatt reconnects with his father and learns life skills that help him navigate the real world.”

The series also stars Erinn Hayes (“Childrens Hospital”), Drew Logan Powell (“Rockaway”), Kyan Zielinski (“The Lunchbox Brigade”), and Swoosie Kurtz (“Mike and Molly”). The series is executive produced by Cranston, Glouberman, Greg Mottola (“Superbad”), and James Degus (“Sneaky Pete”). Cranston and Mottola wrote the first two episodes, and Glouberman serves as the showrunner.

Amazon Prime will make all six episodes available for streaming on March 30. Until then, check out the trailer below:

This week’s upcoming episode of “Drunk History” looks like it’ll tackle a pretty sobering subject — though even in this exclusive preview clip, guest narrator Suzie Barrett can’t seem to completely slur her way through it.

This Tuesday’s episode, “Civil Rights,” features three separate segments on different political movements in history, including one that will focus on American disability rights activist Judy Huemann. In 1977, she and 105 other disabled citizens staged a 28-day sit-in protest at the San Francisco Office of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The protest forced legislators to sign Section 504 of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, finally regulating federal buildings for disabled citizens.

For such a satirical show, this episode seems surprisingly mindful, as the entire ensemble cast is made up of disabled actors. Huemann is played with an inspiring stubbornness by Ali Stroker, known for her role on “Glee” and for being the first Broadway actress to use a wheelchair for mobility.

But as always with “Drunk History,” the actors throw themselves into it with gusto. Each one mouths Barrett’s lines with a over-the-top, show-stealing confidence. Sign language has never looked so sarcastic.

And watching Stroker tell a security guard that “me and my 150 friends would actually like to roll over your ass, because we’re about to make a change” might be one of the best lines in this season so far. History has never been so hilarious.

]]>http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/ali-stroker-drunk-history-civil-rights-video-1201929857/feed/01201929857‘The Push’ Trailer: Netflix Series Wants to Know If You Would Push Someone Off a Ledgehttp://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/the-push-trailer-netflix-derren-brown-1201930571/
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/02/the-push-trailer-netflix-derren-brown-1201930571/#respondTue, 20 Feb 2018 16:50:10 +0000Jude Dryhttp://www.indiewire.com/?p=1201930571

Do you still shudder at the thought of hearing “The Weakest Link” host Anne Robinson say: “You are the weakest link… Goodbye”? If so, Netflix has another seriously twisted British reality show for you. It’s called “The Push,” and it sounds like the most messed up reality show since “Survivor” (or maybe that crazy Russian one that allowed murder). Arriving stateside via Netflix later this month, “The Push” is a social experiment show led by “psychological illusionist” Derren Brown. Using actors and elaborate scenarios, Brown tests the moral mettle of poor unsuspecting contestants by trying to manipulate them into committing murder.

Per the official synopsis: “Brown exposes the psychological secrets of obedience and social compliance. He expertly lifts the lid on the terrifying truth that, when confronted with authority, our natural instinct is to unflinchingly obey without question – to such an extent that even the most moral people can be made to commit the most horrendous acts, simply because they are told to do so.”

The details in the trailer are a bit unclear, but the frazzled contestant must hide a man who faints in an event hall just before a big auction. Eventually, a group of people (all actors) attempt to pressure him into pushing the man off a rooftop. “He’s a millionaire, he’s gonna make sure you go to jail,” says one of the actors. It’s like a nightmare version of “Candid Camera.”

Although it had been a week since “The Alienist” had shown a quick peek of its mysterious killer’s face, Monday’s episode “Hildebrandt’s Starling” allows him to own the screen for a significant amount of time. And the results are unsettling in a way that’s a credit to this significant departure from Caleb Carr’s best-selling period crime novel of the same name.

In the source material, readers must wait until Dr. Kreizler and his assembled team of investigators fully create a criminal profile before they start closing in on the killer, and even then, it takes most of the novel to actually meet him. In TNT’s adaptation, however, the killer’s presence has been teased out from the beginning as the show revealed glimpses at the man in shadow in the aftermath of a kill or as he corners his latest victim. Viewers also learned his identity early on: He’s Willem Van Burgen (Josef Altin), a privileged son of a high-society couple, whom the mayor and police have been secretly shielding.

On Monday’s episode, however, Willem’s proclivities are out in the open to everyone — his mother, the police, and even the viewers — except for Kreizler’s team. While they’re still trying to figure out his society connections and learn his name and patterns, the police have lied to Commissioner Roosevelt about Willem’s address. Willem is also deep in killer mode having wined and dined his chosen victim — another boy prostitute who dresses in girl’s clothing — and is about to make his move when his mother (Sean Young) arrives to spirit him away and save him from being apprehended.

Here are five reasons why the show’s decision to reveal the murderer early on is such a smart move:

This Tired Tale Needed to Be Refreshed

Carr’s novel had been published in 1994, but since then, the TV landscape has been riddled with serial killer shows, and some that have explored many of the aspects that had made this tale unique. England’s “Ripper Street” is set slightly before the events of “The Alienist,” and thus includes many of the same hallmarks, such as violence against sex workers, the dawn of new scientific techniques such as fingerprinting, and a stuffy society at odds with its more perverse underbelly.

Even Netflix’s “Mindhunter,” which is set in the 1970s, has nevertheless preceded “The Alienist” on TV in presenting the nascent stages of serial killer profiling. Since the period trappings and profiling are now so familiar, “The Alienist” had to distinguish itself somehow, and it’s doing this through the particulars of its central case.

The Villain Has a Face

While keeping the villain abstract in the novel may have worked, television is a far more visual medium, and thus it became imperative that as Kreizler & Co. began to form a picture of the killer, that the audience had a visual to match. Besides, the face isn’t a disappoint either. Viewers may remember Josef Altin as Pyp, one of Jon Snow’s Night’s Watch brothers when he first joined. The actor also recently made a memorable turn in Hulu’s “Harlots” as Princes Rasselas.

Bring on the Dramatic Irony

As numerous mystery novelists and filmmakers have learned, sometimes letting spectators in on the big secret of who the killer is can make the story even more compelling. Hitchcock did this often, most notably in “Dial ‘M’ for Murder,” after which the audience was left guessing exactly how the police would be able to outwit the killer each time they were on screen.

Similarly, revealing Willem earlier has created more urgency every time we see him, especially with a victim. It ratchets up the tension also to witness just how frustratingly far behind Kreizler’s group is. As the team gets closer and closer to finding Willem, the intensity will increase.

Willem Is One Colorful and Twisted Character

Although the subject matter is grim, one can’t help being fascinated by Willem’s depravity, which is frankly one of the draws of serial killer stories. The killer in the novel was twisted enough, but the series gives him extra color, literally. His signature silver smile is the result of mercury salts used to treat syphilis.

Also, watching Willem with his doting mother in this most recent episode is downright horrifying. Not only does she lovingly enable the monster that is her son, but how he throws a tantrum like a spoiled toddler deprived of his favorite toy is absolutely terrifying, considering that toy is a human being. Who knows what additional revelations future episodes will bring.

Sara Was Right

Seeing Willem and his mother’s creepy bond provides some satisfaction that proves Sara Howard’s (Dakota Fanning) supposition about the killer being influenced by his mother was correct, despite Kreizler’s marked protest. It’s tangible evidence of how each person on the team is able to contribute.